Rekindle the animal spirits

Creating mass demand, leading to a boom in investment, is necessary; encouraging consuming classes to spend will help

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Last year, when India's GDP growth came in at 8.2% in 2023-24, some analysts were overly optimistic about India's medium-term growth prospects. And on Tuesday, after the first advance estimates for 2024-25 growth put the number at 6.4%, some analysts have been overly pessimistic about them.

A careful reading of last year's numbers—Gross Value Added (GVA) growth was a percentage point lower and higher GDP growth numbers were basically a reflection of the rollback in subsidies—should have warned against excessive optimism. Tuesday's estimate puts GVA growth also at 6.4% in this fiscal year. Simply put, the slowdown vis-à-vis last year is relatively lower if one uses GVA as the benchmark.